In 2005, the International Futures Programme (IFP) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) embarked on a project on `The bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a policy agenda`, aiming to assess "how pervasive biotechnological applications are likely to become, the prospects for further development over the next two to three decades, the potential impact on the economy and society, and the policy agenda needed to promote and diffuse this new wave of innovations in a way that is consistent with broader socioeconomic goals". The IFP has just released a number of background documents prepared within the context of the project, several of which deal directly with agricultural biotechnology. These include "Agricultural biotechnology to 2030", by A.M. Murphy, D. van Moorsel and M. Ching (22 pages, considering two different future scenarios); "Small and medium enterprises in agricultural biotechnology", by S.C. Blank (41 pages); "Intellectual property rights in agricultural and agro-food biotechnologies to 2030", by M. Trommetter (a 41-page report presenting options for intellectual property rights in agricultural biotechnologies by 2030); "An overview of regulatory tools and frameworks for modern biotechnology: A focus on agro-food", by M. Cantley (a 123-page paper aiming to give a picture of the main aspects of regulatory measures applied to modern biotechnology, and the products and services derived from it, in selected OECD and non-OECD countries); and "Biotechnology: Ethical and social debates", by N. Rigaud (an 89-page document focusing on six issues - genetically modified (GM) crops and GM food; biomass energy and biofuels; bioprospecting; GM and cloned animals and their welfare; private genetic information; and stem cell research). See the documents or contact [email protected] for more information.

03/07/2008